Coldplay
Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends

THE REVIEW

After praising Super Furry Animals and Blur... I want to exalt a more recent band: Coldplay. Their latest album, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends" is a masterpiece, a cornerstone of rock music of the '00s.

Released on June 13, 2008, after two years in the recording studio, and after a very arduous song selection for the (scanty) tracklist and a lot of rumors (some claiming the songs sounded like Radiohead). Sure, this is their "Ok Computer", the music they produced previously takes a step forward, evolves: "enough with the verse-bridge-chorus-finale structure" was the band's motto in the studio, urged by Brian Eno to modify their way of composing, which had become predictable, and to try to distance themselves from the past, from the phase of the band dubbed "Oldplay" by Will Champion.

Having made these premises, let's get to the album: the sounds, as anticipated, are completely different, the group makes use of often unorthodox instruments and merges multiple songs into a single track. The opening track, "Life In Technicolor" is an instrumental (later released in November on an EP with Chris Martin's vocals and made a single on February 2nd - the day of my birthday) where an oriental instrument, probably a sitar, dominates the other instruments. The final chord connects to the second track, "Cemeteries Of London", a folk-flamenco-rock piece where hand claps, combined with Arcade Fire-like choirs, create a dark yet triumphant atmosphere. It is followed by "Lost!", a track with a hip-hop-like base and the warm sound of a Hammond accompanying Martin's lyrics. I don't know why, but this track reminds me as much of "Give Peace a Chance" by Lennon as "One" by U2... they have little in common... anyway, the band stated that they listened a lot to Blur while writing the album, and in particular, this song is inspired by "Sing", a track from my favorite band dating back to 1991.

The fourth track, "42", is one of the album's highlights: suffice it to say that Coldplay wrote it inspired by masterful pieces like "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead and "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen. It's not as complex as the two aforementioned songs, but it combines three different melodies in one: it starts as a rather sad piano ballad, then evolves into a fairly heavy instrumental for the band (which wrote it thinking of Tinariwen and Rammstein) and closes with super-triumphant choirs where the echo of Arcade Fire is very much felt (again????).

Then comes a novelty: two songs in one, "Lovers In Japan/Reign Of Love", combined to allow Itunes users to pay 1 and get 2... fun, right? The first was released as a single, being very radio-friendly: a disco-ish base supports a lively piano for a track that reminds me a lot of U2, the second is an atypical track, a piano ballad with an ancient feel, improvised by the band for 20 minutes and reduced to less than three here...

Moving on, the album is a succession of other gems: "Violet Hill", the first single, is an atypical ska-blues-britpop, "Viva La Vida" needs no description with all the success it has had (it became the band's most successful single, selling 9 million copies and surpassing Clocks); "Strawberry Swing", the next likely single for which the band just shot the video, is a positive afro-pop, calm, relaxing, with a cello that supports the entire piece, always playing the Ab. The second double track, "Yes/Chinese Sleep Chant" begins with the darkest track of the album, where Martin sings low notes as in no previous song of the group and where violins and tabla contribute to evoking the East. The second is a Radiohead-like track, where the voice is rarefied, overwhelmed by the instruments... it could be defined as a shoegaze track. It all closes with "Death And All His Friends", a track where the band tries different timings (in some parts, beats are 7/8) and where the structure is quite composite, somewhat in the style of "42". A few seconds pass, and the ghost track "The Escapist" begins, a striking track also present before "Life In Technicolor", extremely relaxing, which I would define as dream rock, in the style of Sigur Ròs.

The album, as I said, was followed in November by an EP titled Prospekt's March, which included discarded tracks and revisions of those contained in this wonderful cd.

A note, though: nothing more is known about the much-referenced "Famous Old Painters" during the album recordings and indicated as a sensational track that would have been the pinnacle of "Viva La Vida" along with "Glass Of Water": while the latter was released on the EP and is a very possible single (so it is written in the liner notes), Famous did not appear in any release... could it be reused for the next project? I want to talk about this too...

According to Coldplay's latest statements, the next album, scheduled for 2010, will continue on the experimental path taken with "Viva La Vida". In particular, the various members said they are experimenting with new rhythms (like 5/4 and 7/4) and also new genres: the drummer says he is specializing in playing faster, the group is drawing inspiration from jazz, nu rave, and Arabic music... we'll see! I'm eagerly waiting... but the band has already denied being able to release a new album by the end of the year, as they had planned, because they want to experiment a lot... hopefully next year!!!

How many stars to give? 5 are not enough... this is the classic legendary album for which something more is needed: at least 5 golden stars... well, I think the group will settle for 5!